Sunday, November 27, 2005

Baltics read newspapers online

Recently Eurostat published a report on Internet activities in the European Union. These are the following hightlights:• 89% of EU enterprises actively used the Internet in 2004; 65% had a website.• 47% of individuals had recently used the Internet. Those who did so were mainly looking for information and on-line services and used it for communication (e-mail).• As was to be expected, by 2004 the playing and downloading of games and music was particularly popular amongst 16-to-24-year-olds; at the other end of the spectrum, Internet users of retirement age (65-74 years) frequently account for higher shares than the 55-64 age group.• In Denmark, Germany, Estonia and Finland, around three quarters of Internet users who were unemployed at the time of the survey were looking for a job or sent a job application over the Internet.• Internet-based banking activities were fairly widespread and performed by Internet users of all age groups, except for 16 to 24-year-olds.• Reading and downloading on-line newspapers was a particularly widespread Internet activity in the Baltic States and Iceland. Playing or downloading games was popular in Greece, Cyprus and Turkey, but also in Finland.

The table below provides details of Internet users looking for specific information and on-line services. The category ‘Finding information about goods and services’ generally appeared to be the most widespread activity in the EU Member States, except for the three Baltic states, where ‘reading or downloading online newspapers’ was highest. This activity was also quite widespread in Iceland and, to a lesser degree, in Turkey.

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About Me

Jak Boumans (1945) is principal consultant with Electronic Media Reporting, a private consultancy specialised in content strategy, based in Almere (The Netherlands). In 1970 he started in the publishing industry with companies like VNU and Kluwer, particularly in general encyclopaedias. From 1980 he got involved in electronic publishing, running a videotex studio. In 1984 he launched a daily online newsletter for the computer industry from London. In 1987 he was part of the production team that produced the first Dutch subscription CD-ROM for Kluwer for lawyers.
In 1990 he started the private company Electronic Media Reporting, a consultancy specialised in content. He worked for international organisation ( European Commission, OESO), Dutch ministries, national organisations and companies.
He is secretary-general of the European Academy of Digital Media (EADiM) and board member of the multimedia competition World Summit Award (WSA).
He has written for national and international magazines. He was contributor, editor and editor-in-chief of Telecombrief (1981-2004). He wrote, contributed to and co-edited books. His last book in Dutch was on Pre-internet in de polder (1967-1997).